Nursery employee was feeding 4 kids directly when one choked

A nursery worker was feeding pasta Bolognese to four children at once when one of them choked before dying in hospital six days later, an inquest has heard.

The tragedy occurred just four weeks after nine-month-old Oliver Steeper had started attending the Jelly Beans Day Nursery in Ashford, Kent, in September 2021.

Giving evidence at his inquest, nursery worker Loetta Collins said it was ‘not really’ usual for four babies to be fed by one person at the same time.

The qualified child carer was not feeding Oliver when he started to choke, but had ‘finely chopped’ his food, and was the ‘key person’ responsible for his care, the jury inquest at Oakwood House in Maidstone heard.

The 31-year-old started working at the nursery around the same time Oliver joined.

The baby boy had been eating pureed meals at home and his parents believed he was ‘nowhere near being able to chew’ properly, the inquest previously heard.

During the two half-days per week he spent at the nursery, Oliver was looked after in the ‘Panda Room’ for babies aged three months to two years old, jurors were told.

The nursery’s staff to baby ratio was one member of staff to every three children, and lunch would normally be served at 11am.

Mrs Collins told the inquest she and Oliver’s mother Zoe Steeper had discussed how her son’s food should be prepared before he joined.

‘I asked her: “How would you like it?”

‘She said: “Finely chopped,”‘ the inquest heard.

Food prepared by chefs would normally be chopped up by nursery staff to suit the needs of each baby, the inquest heard.

Oliver’s parents had ‘assumed’ his food would be blended by staff, his mother previously said.

But asked if the plan had ever been to puree Oliver’s food, Mrs Collins replied: ‘No.’

On the day Oliver choked on his penne pasta and Bolognese, Mrs Collins had chopped up the food before another staff member fed it to him.

Mrs Collins said: ‘Lunch was running late because of how busy we were.

‘I spent a lot of time cutting his food and mixing it until I was satisfied.

‘I do worry about things like that.’

Asked if it was common practice for staff to feed four children at once, she replied: ‘Not really.’

The nursery worker said she first realised something was wrong with Oliver when he ‘made a sound as if he was going to cry, but didn’t start crying’.

Mrs Collins, who is trained in first aid, immediately realised Oliver was choking and tried to administer back slaps to clear his airway, she told jurors.

The nursery manager arrived to help, before emergency call handlers advised them to start CPR, the inquest heard.

Baby Oliver was rushed to hospital, but brain scans revealed he was not going to survive, and he died six days later.

The Jelly Beans Day Nursery has since closed, according to Ofsted.

The inquest previously heard that parents of nine-month-old Oliver had ‘assumed’ his food would be blended by staff because he was ‘nowhere near being able to chew’ properly.

His mother had tried to remind staff he was not able to eat solid foods on the day he died, but did not want to ‘rock the boat’, the inquest was told.

The baby boy, who only had two front teeth, had been eating pureed meals at home, and his parents were assured by nursery workers that solids could be blended before being fed to him, the inquest was told.

But Oliver’s parents became concerned when they found ‘chunks’ of pineapple in his vomit, and had intended to remind nursery staff that solid foods were not suitable for him, his mother Zoe Steeper told the inquest at Oakwood House in Maidstone.

The jury inquest heard that during a trial session at the nursery with his mother, baby Oliver had been offered some pear but ‘didn’t really know what to do with it’ and just ‘squished it between his fists’.

‘The majority of his food at home was purees,’ Mrs Steeper said as she gave evidence.

Mrs Steeper, and Oliver’s father Lewis Steeper, were told by the nursery that food could be blended for him, the inquest heard.

‘We assumed that food would be pureed,’ Mrs Steeper said. ‘He wasn’t able to chew, that made us extra cautious.’

Mr and Mrs Steeper had chosen to send their son to the Jelly Beans Day Nursery because it was only 20 minutes from their home, and it ‘felt like a family run nursery’, the jury heard.

When baby Oliver was unwell, and his parents found ‘chunks’ of pineapple in his vomit, the couple ‘wondered how he had managed to eat it’.

Mrs Steeper continued: ‘He had been given fruit salad at nursery, it was clear it wasn’t pureed.

‘I said I was going to speak to the nursery the following week.’

Mrs Steeper had considered emailing the nursery immediately, but she did not want to ‘rock the boat’ or make staff feel she was ‘being pushy’, jurors were told.

Describing the moment she tried to raise the issue with staff in person while dropping Oliver off the following week, she said: ‘I felt rushed because I was dropping him off late.’

‘The lady I gave him to seemed rushed. Another child was holding her leg.’

Later that morning, Mrs Steeper, who was working in a fire brigade control centre at the time, received a call from the nursery to say her son had been ‘involved in an accident and had chocked on his lunch’, the inquest heard.

When she arrived at the nursery, Mrs Steeper saw a young paramedic running with her son in his arms while doing chest compressions, she told the inquest.

Baby Oliver was rushed to hospital, but brain scans revealed he was not going to survive, and he died six days later.

Kent Police investigated the incident, but no further action was taken.

The inquest is expected to last for two weeks.